Mike If there is a mandatory delimiter missing, then end-of-data will cause an error. It is not a substitute for a mandatory delimiter. But 'delimited' will work ok when end-of-data found and the delimiter is not mandatory. I can think of three such examples: - no terminating markup in scope at all - last element in sequence and separatorPosition is not 'postfix' - last element in sequence and terminator but documentFinalTerminatorCanBeMissing 'yes' Regards Steve Hanson Architect, IBM Data Format Description Language (DFDL) Co-Chair, OGF DFDL Working Group IBM SWG, Hursley, UK smh@uk.ibm.com tel:+44-1962-815848 From: Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com> To: dfdl-wg@ogf.org, Date: 01/05/2013 07:05 Subject: [DFDL-WG] when does lengthKind='delimited' accept EOF instead of a terminator. Sent by: dfdl-wg-bounces@ogf.org The exact semantics of lengthKind='delimited' are a little bit unclear to me. Are there situations where we accept end-of-data as a substitute for finding a delimiter? Consider this: <element name="foo" type="xs:string" dfdl:lengthKind="delimited" dfdl:initiator="[START]" dfdl:terminator="[END]"/> I think this string should always cause a processing error: "[START] some data ". That is, the [END] terminator is not present, instead one runs out of data. So what exactly are the situations where delimited length kind will not find a delimiter, hit end-of-data, and be ok with it? I understand that hitting end-of-data might cause a backtrack for resolving points of uncertainty, but is there ever a case where running out of data is accepted as a substitute for finding a delimiter? (I am hoping the answer here is no, but I am asking because I am not certain.) -- Mike Beckerle | OGF DFDL Workgroup Co-Chair | Tresys Technology | www.tresys.com -- dfdl-wg mailing list dfdl-wg@ogf.org https://www.ogf.org/mailman/listinfo/dfdl-wg Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU